This first group of portraits was taken during the open studio event at Kingsgate Workshop trust the weekend of the 25th & 26th June 2016, immediately after the referendum vote that would change our lives and question our relationship to the country that we love and share a part in. I had always avoided portraits thinking myself not good at them, but that weekend, I felt a deep need to connect with people; some of them friends, some of them strangers, to try to see them and capture something of them at that moment.

Many were modestly reluctant to stand in front of the artworks initially, but this union with and immersion in the artwork fascinated me and has become an ongoing fascination.